By Patrick Z. McGavinBRIDGEVIEW — Saturday marked the third-straight year that Glenbard East reached the final day of play in the Windy City Ram Classic and earned the right to strut its stuff inside the beautiful and ornate space of Toyota Park.But previously everything was heartbreak.Brittany Paganucci broke the streak.The Rams’ star senior forward completed an impressive wheel and left-footed blast less than a minute into the second half that forcefully ended the team’s scoreless streak in the MLS stadium as Glenbard East captured the tourney’s consolation title with the strong 1-0 victory over Andrew on Saturday morning.The relief was palpable. Glenbard East (4-1-0) captured its fourth consecutive shutout as Sierra Dana posted her 21st career game without conceding a goal. The other Rams keeper, Faith Davies, was at the center of two plays outside of the goal that deeply impacted the outcome.Davies is also a tall-and-rangy defender who is the team’s most skilled performer at the deep throw-in. She started the scoring sequence on the right flank with a sharp ball that played right to the feet of midfielder Amanda Chlebet.“Hope threw in the long ball, and I saw Amanda coming across and she always flicks it,” Paganucci said.“So it came to me, and I checked my shoulder and saw that nobody was there. So I took it across my body, and there was open space in the back. I just hit it left footed into the back of the net.”The Chicagoland Soccer MVP of the Match, Paganucci recorded her sixth goal of the year. The Rams went 4-0 in the consolation bracket after losing its heartbreaking 1-0 tournament opener against Lincoln-Way East.In previous visits to the home of the Chicago Fire and this season the Chicago Red Stars, Glenbard East suffered back-to-back 1-0 championship losses against Lincoln-Way North and Lincoln-Way East respectively.“We have not scored at Toyota Park, and that was the main goal today,” Paganucci said.Chlebet has a strong rapport with Paganucci. She knows in that situation the forward is at her most dangerous.“We’ve been playing together for three years, and we worked on that play for a good 45 minutes every day in practice and it paid off,” Cheblet said.Strategically and psychologically the team that scores first in the vast field holds a huge edge. That and the modified format of playing just two 30-minute halves only increased the pressure on Andrew (3-2-0) to find an equalizer.“We definitely knew it was a bigger field than we’re used to, and we had to take advantage of the open space,” Paganucci said.Andrew’s best player, senior midfielder Alanna Lalich, a Western Illinois-recruit, made several nice runs against the Rams.In the first half she played a free kick inside the box, that she was not quite able to get on the end of. She generated two decent shots that Dana thwarted.“On that free kick the ball took a bad bounce,” Lalich said.“It was frustrating out there because we had some good opportunities. I think if we had a little more time we might have scored. They had the one goal, but we were stopping them the whole game.”Thunderbirds’ forward Brooke Zidek was a strong complement at the top for Lalich. She made strong forays to the box and also pressured Dana. Zidek punched one ball from about 16 yards out that soared above the bar.The size of the field and the need to substitute more freely to provide rest and recovery time also plays into a team’s strategy. It results in sometimes having unfamiliar combinations on the pitch.“They were sporadic, but I felt like we were creating some opportunities out there,” Andrew coach Loren Zolk said. “Glenbard East is very well organized, they’re disciplined and they play very physical. We don’t have quite the size they do.”Zolk also got an eyeful of Paganucci.“She’s really good, and she is surrounded by great players,” Zolk said.If anything, Glenbard East coach Kent Overbey felt the Rams got too caught up in the atmosphere and the familiarity of playing at Toyota Park.“This is our third-straight year here and until today we never scored a goal,” Overbey said. “That was weighing on our minds. In the first half we looked out of sorts, like we were just happy to be here. At halftime I just talked about not wasting the effort. I told them to put one away.”Paganucci made the decisive play. Davies was the unsung hero who helped seal the deal. Her throw-in unlocked one side.In the 57th minute she preserved the victory when she made a daring-and-mad sprint that cut off the angle against Lalich and got just enough of a deflection to alter its trajectory and take away the Thunderbirds’ best scoring chance of the day.“Faith is our back up keeper, but when we decided [Dana] was going to be our starter, we knew that Faith is such a great athlete and we had to figure a way to get her on the field,” Overbey said. “Andrew has very fast forwards, and we were able to neutralize them and not let them get behind us.”Starting line-upsGlenbard EastGK: Sierra DanaD: Faith DaviesD: Elizabeth ToledoD: Paige TaylorD: Katie HansenMF: Amy ChieroMF: Amanda ChlebekMF: Sammie SarlesMF: Holly WardF: Dana PlotkeyF: Brittany PaganucciAndrewGK: Gabriela SportielloD: Sara BrowneD: Kylie NowocinD: Taylor OllryMF: Jennafer MalickMF: Abby HookerMF: Alanna LalichMF: Jillian SteinkeF: Megan NemecF: Brooke ZidekF: Nicole NovakMVP of the Match: Brittany Paganucci, F, Glenbard East